Blythe

This is one of Kellie Elmore‘s past prompts of her weekly Free Write Friday challenge. I changed a lot of things around. I kept most of the prompt.

It’s after midnight. You find yourself in an eerie yet, magical swamp. You hear whispering and see flashes of light. What happens?

It was cold in her bed. Her parents had always taken her there in the summer. It gets away from life at home. Which was always a waste, because they could never get rid of their phones long enough to do anything with her. She became this shy and distance little girl. She felt abandoned by everybody around her. Her parents worked all the time and she didn’t have any siblings to play and bond with; she just had her dreams. She daydreamed everyday. It didn’t matter where she was, a little thought would come to her and as much as she tried to deny it, that’s all she cared about, were her dreams. At the cabin every summer, she would bring a new book to keep herself occupy with. Going outside to play wasn’t really her thing. She did sit out on the deck and read her books.

Blythe and her parents would stay out in the cabin for the last of the summer. She never understood why they continued to go there, if all three of them never really went there to enjoy the fresh air or got to know their neighbors. Blythe remembers meeting one set of their neighbors one summer. The couple came over with their four-month old baby girl and a small pound cake that the woman had made. When Blythe opened the door, they were happy-go-lucky and she looked like Wednesday Adams, dressed in black and gray with very pale skin. The only color she had were her pretty blue eyes and blush lips. The young couple stared at her in disgrace and told her they were the welcome wagon. The man shoved the cake Blythe’s chest and her hands gripped a hold of the plate before he let go. Her mother walked by and was actually off her phone long enough to talk to the neighbors and love on their little baby. Blythe just walked away from the doorway and put the cake on the counter for later.

As Blythe walked up the stairs after a long day of doing nothing but reading all day and listen to the junkie radio that the cabin has had ever since they first bought it. She would bring outside on the deck so she could feel like somebody cared for her. Both of her parents didn’t have WiFi but they had the internet on their Blackberry’s to keep them up to date. Blythe’s arms were tired and she had a headache. Too many words. Once she got into bed, she drifted off to sleep. Around 2am she woke up, turned from side to side to get comfortable again. She kept hearing a bird call out. She finally got tired of hearing the bird and walked over to her window. She didn’t see anything but the woods and the dark sky filled with stars. She lifted the window to open it and peak her head out. She didn’t see anything but purple lights flash out from the trees in the back of the woods. She just thought it was her eyes messing with her, when little dots appeared at the ground coming towards her window. She slammed the window shut, locked it, and closed the drapes. She ran back to her bed and threw on her blanket to shield her from what she saw, or what she thought she saw.

The next day, it was the same routine like always. The parents were nice enough to make breakfast–only coffee–for themselves. Her father had his Bluetooth stuck in his ear for the tenth day in a row. Her mother was stuck on her phone, never looking up at her tired daughter walking by her. Blythe went into the kitchen and grabbed herself a cup of coffee too. After a couple of sips, she looked around the room and heard nothing but her father on the phone. She was hungry so she got started on making some real breakfast. Bacon and eggs. She ate her breakfast with some eager and after she was done, she put her plate and fork in the sink and washed them, then put them back in the cabinets like they were never used. She had gotten used to eating almost every meal by herself. She’s done it for years and doesn’t think she’ll ever stop in her life. After she was done, she turned left and went outside with her book or radio. She was still curious into what she saw last night, but it was light out. Who knows if she’ll ever find anything there now? She was still too curious to ignore it. She put on his brown flip-flops that she had left outside before she went to bed and started walking into the woods.

The sky was blue and the sun was bright, but it wasn’t hot. There was a slight breeze as she kept going deeper and deeper into the woods. The noises that surrounded her filled her ears until it made her have a headache. She actually got so tired from hearing the sounds of the wind blowing against the tree branches and the animals chattering amongst themselves that she actually collapsed onto the ground. She wanted to scream for everything to be quiet, but she knew it wouldn’t help. She started crying softly and then she started hearing faint footsteps coming towards her. She slowly pulled her head up and once she heard a twig snap right behind her she took off running. She lost her right flip-flop in the process but kept running. She ran until she was in a big area where the lake was, she was panting and breathing heavily. She walked over the water and took off her other shoe and walked into the lake. She was hot from the sun glazing on her. The clouds were gone and the sun sat just in the middle of the trees. Her surroundings were beautiful and quiet, until she heard small whispering around her.

“Hello?” Blythe said, the shy little girl crept back into her hiding place. “Is anybody there?” she asked and looked around. The light sat and water instantly moving without her moving and it slowly changed colors. It went from a dusky blue to a beautiful dark purple. Just like she had seen up in the sky the night before. Little specks of bright light popped out of the purple water. She looked down at her ankles; the water around her was still blue. She leaned over and put her hand together lifted some of water out of the lake. As she lifted her hands up to her face, the water changed to clear and when she separated her hands it was like a bubble popped in her hands and the drops scattered out of her hands. She didn’t understand what was going on and when she went to turn around to walk out of the lake, she bumped into a woman, dressed in a navy blue dress. She had piercing blue eyes that could captivate anyone. “Are you going somewhere?” she said.